Joe Clark

Charles Joseph "Joe" Clark (5 June 1939-) was Prime Minister of Canada from 4 June 1979 to 3 March 1980, interrupting Pierre Trudeau's two terms in office. He was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

Biography
Charles Joseph Clark was born in High River, Alberta on 5 June 1939, and he went to the University of Alberta, where he became national Progressive Conservative Party of Canada student president before taking a master's degree in political science. He worked for the party until he was elected to the House of Commons in 1972. Despite his position on the progressive wing, he emerged as leader of a party riven with internal divisions in 1976. He formed a minority government in May 1979, when he became the country's youngest Prime Minister, and the first to come from the western provinces. His major policy proposals, such as the privatization of the national petroleum company, Petro-Canada, were inappropriate for his weak parliamentary position, and he lost a vote of confidence in December 1979 following the rejection of his austerity budget in parliament. Pierre Trudeau's Liberal Party of Canada won the 1980 election, and Clark became leader of the opposition. In 1983, Brian Mulroney replaced him as Progressive Conservative leader, and he remained an active "elder statesman" within his party, serving as Minister of External Affairs under Mulroney. In 1991, he became Minister of Constitutional Affairs, and he put together a constitutional package in the aftermath of the failure of the Meech Lake Accord. The resulting Charlottetown Accord of 1992 was defeated in a referendum by six provinces and one territory, and he announced that he would not run in the 1993 election.